Preface
1. News in a Changing Information System
Why Journalism Matters
Can the News Be Fixed?
The Citizen Gap: Who Follows the News?
Governing with the News
Politicians and the Media: A Symbiotic Relationship
Getting Spun: Indexing the News to Political Power
Case Study: Political Comedy Reveals the “Truthiness” about News
What about the People?
A Definition of News
The Fragile Link between News and Democracy
2. News Stories: Four Information Biases That Matter
Putting Journalistic Bias in Perspective
A Different Kind of Bias
Four Information Biases That Matter: An Overview
Four Information Biases in the News: An In-Depth Look
Case Study: Who Controls the News Narrative?
Bias and the US Political Information System
Reform Anyone?
3. Citizens and the News: Public Opinion and Information Processing
News and the Battle for Public Opinion
Chasing Its Own Tale: How News Formulas Shape Opinion
The Public in the News Drama
Selling the Iraq War
Reaching Inattentive Publics
Case Study: National Attention Deficit Disorder?
Processing the News
News and Public Opinion: The Citizen’s Dilemma
Publics in the Digital Age
4. How Politicians Make the News
Are Social Media Replacing the Role of the Press?
The Politics of Old-Fashioned PR
Case Study: How Global Warming Became a Partisan News Story
Press Politics: Feeding the Beast
News as Strategic Political Communication
The Symbolic Uses of Politics
Symbolic Politics and Strategic Communication
Why the Press Is So Easily Spun
Controlling the Situation: From Pseudo-events to Damage Control
Playing Hardball: The Intimidation of Whistleblowers and Reporters
Government and the Politics of Newsmaking
5. How Journalists Report the News
How Spin Works
Journalistic Routines and Professional Norms
Reporters as a Pack: Pressures to Agree
The Paradox of Organizational Routines
The End of Gatekeeping and the Challenges of Change
The Rise of the New Investigative Journalism
Case Study: Hacktivist Journalism: The New Investigative Reporting in the Digital Age
Democracy with or without Citizens?
6. Inside the Profession: The Objectivity Crisis
The Professional Vocabulary of Objectivity, Fairness, Balance, and Truth
The Curious Origins of Objective Journalism
Putting Professional Norms into Practice
Case Study: False Balance in the News
Objectivity Reconsidered
Journalism and the Crisis of Credibility
7. The Political Economy of News
Case Study: Adapt or Die: The Future of News in Native Digital Media
The Legacy Media Try to Hold On
Ownership Deregulation and the End of Social Responsibility Standards
The Media Monopoly: Four Decades of Change
Big Business versus the Public Interest
The Citizen’s Movement for Media Reform
Technology, Economics, and Democracy
8. The Future of News in a Time of Change
Information Technology and Citizenship: Isolation or Deliberation?
Whither the Public Sphere?
Three American Myths about Freedom of the Press
News and Power in America: Myth versus Reality
Why the Free Press Myth Persists
Proposals for Citizens, Journalists, and Politicians
Time for a Public Discussion about the Role of the Press
Case Study: Innovation and Change in News Formats
In Closing: How to Fight the Information Overload
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index